Bill to target HemisFair Park

It would let city change way land is used.

Updated 1:05 am, Saturday, November 24, 2012

San Antonio would gain the authority to dedicate and undedicate park space within HemisFair Park under a bill the city plans to have introduced in the Legislature come January.

The aim of the bill is to give HemisFair planners the flexibility to redevelop the park and expedite a master plan approved by City Council, which calls for more park space and adding mixed-use development.

That will require reorganizing the way the land is used.

By law, selling park space or converting it for another purpose requires voter approval, a stipulation that would be dropped for HemisFair only if the bill is passed, those backing it say.

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“This bill would give the City Council the authority to clarify what is going to be park land and what is not,” Assistant City Manager Carlos Contreras said.

He said the city is talking with state Rep. Mike Villarreal, D-San Antonio, about filing the bill in the Legislature, which convenes Jan. 8.

Since HemisFair '68, what is park land and what is not has become jumbled, the park's chief planner said.

“It's a very random park dedication that has grown to be what it is based on random moves over the last 45 years,” said Andres Andujar, CEO of the HemisFair Park Area Redevelopment Corp., the public-private nonprofit group the city formed to recast the park.

Of the 50 acres or so planners have to work with, 20 are envisioned for park space, which could include jogging trails and an amphitheater. Another 20 acres would be used for development: housing, museum space and a mix of other uses.

The remaining acres account for some of the street grid of the neighborhood that was removed for HemisFair '68 and would be re-established.

“What we want is to balance what is open space with development,” Andujar said.

There now are 14.97 acres of dedicated park space at HemisFair Park, but only 6.5 acres is being used as green space. The remaining acres, though technically defined as park space, are occupied by buildings or parking lots.

So shifting park space around would bump up the amount of actual green space to 20 acres when the project is complete, planners say.

“It's a phased development,” Andujar said. “The park expansion is in the plan. The precise lines of where the park land is — it's not yet defined. We will have four to five acres that are not dedicated park land (now) that we will dedicate to ensure that the community's interest in open space is preserved.”

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The master plan shows the creation of a neighborhood — eight to 10 blocks of private development — that would include new housing and mixed-use buildings in the park's southern area.

Andujar said his team has not determined the number of buildings, but the goal is to build more than 1,200 residential units, roughly equal to the amount demolished to make room for the fair.

“You have to have people living here to make it successful,” Andujar said.

Those are the big-picture goals, but there are several roadblocks to reaching those, in part because the city does not own all of the land within the park.

Talks about a land swap between the city and the Institute of Texan Cultures, which is owned by the state, are on hold while both parties await specific design plans for the Convention Center expansion.

In 2011, the city proposed a swap in which the city would gain control of the 14-plus acres the institute occupies in the southeast corner of the park. In return, the institute would move into a multistory space in the original Convention Center, near Alamo and Market streets, most of which is scheduled for demolition.

“The elephant in the room is the amount of money it would cost to renovate a new space or build from the ground up,” said Aaron Parks, assistant executive director at the institute. “Those are the things we are talking about internally.”

Parks concedes the institute would be giving up a significant amount of space if it agreed to the move, but said the new location would give the museum greater visibility.

“The potential trade-off is the location,” Parks said. “It's adjacent to the busiest intersection in San Antonio. ... It's a win-win for us. The redevelopment of HemisFair Park will be good for the museum whether we reside here or on the northwest corner.”

The city also would like to own the multistory federal building at 727 E. César E. Chávez Blvd. and the parking lot south of it, across Chávez. But no agreement has been reached, the city confirmed.